Stroger vetoes sales-tax hike rollback for fourth time
Cook County Board President Todd Stroger today wielded his veto stamp a fourth time on legislation to roll back the unpopular sales tax hike passed a year ago.
Up to now, he’s been able to fend off a rollback by vetoing the measure and shoring up enough votes to withstand an override, arguing a giveback would “decimate” the three hospitals and clinics serving the uninsured and poor.
(John J. Kim/Sun-Times)
But this time a rollback may stick thanks to a change in state law weakening Stroger’s veto authority. He’s also up against a coalition of commissioners arguing that a half-penny-on-the-dollar of the sales tax can be shaved and the hospital system saved by cutting wasteful spending and patronage hiring.
“As the County Board president, I refuse to stand idle while opposition commissioners continue to decimate this [healthcare] system,” Stroger said today, during a news conference outside John H. Stroger Hospital of Cook County Hospital, named for his late father who was also board president.
“My veto stands as the crucial first step in making sure we keep healthcare,” Stroger said, flanked by about about 75 ministers and union officials whose members are employees in the healthcare system.
Stroger asked Cook County residents to call their commissioners, singling out Robert Steele, whose district includes Provident and Cook County hospitals, along with Earlean Collins and Edwin Reyes whose districts also include some of the 16 clinics.
Reached later, Reyes said: “I spoke to the folks at the health and hospital system and they don’t think there’s going to be any shutdowns.” Representing the Northwest Side, Reyes said he’s standing by his decision to support the rollback and that will mean voting to override Stroger’s veto.
“We’re not budging, I don’t see how we can,” Reyes said, adding that the increase hurts consumers and business owners.
The other two Democrats were not immediately available for comment, but last week both said they’d stand by their vote for the partial rollback, saying the sales tax was hurting their constituents — both residents and businesses.
Stroger considered a rollback in the spring, but has returned to his position that the lost revenue stream could lead to Provident and Oak Forest hospitals shuttering. Indeed, health system officials have said those facilities may be transformed in to urgent care centers.
Commissioners originally approved the sales tax hike that Stroger championed, and while he had considered rolling it back last spring, he changed his mind, saying the revenue is a lifeline for the county’s health system serving the poor and uninsured.
But as the drumbeat of dissatisfaction grows louder and the Feb. 2 primary draws near, the tide has changed — with a majority of commissioners now favoring a partial rollback of last year’s full penny-on-the-dollar sales tax. That includes Cook County Commissioner Larry Suffredin, who proved to be the pivotal vote in passing the measure.
But Suffredin said this week it was part of a political chess game: He supported the hike in exchange for Stroger agreeing to give up control of the county hospital system — considered a patronage dumping ground — to an outside panel of professionals. Now, Suffredin says, it’s time to take care of residents and business during one of the worst economic downturns in 100 years.
Today Suffredin’s part of a bi-partisan effort that voted 12-5, for a rollback, and now he’s hoping commissioners stick to their guns to override the measure.
That includes Republican Tony Peraica, who showed up for the news conference: “The almost $900 million that this board has appropriated to the health bureau is more than adequate to take care of our statutory as well as moral obligations to the uninsured and the underinsured in this county. And we’re going to continue to do that.”
Gov. Pat Quinn earlier this month signed in to law a measure that lowers the veto threshold for the 17-member commission from 14 votes to 11 — a move that was as much about the 2010 election as it was bringing Cook County in line with the rest of the state’s and even the federal three-fifths majority override rules. But nothing is ever set in stone at the Cook County Board.
After voting to roll back the tax earlier this year, Commissioner Deborah Sims did an about-face after Stroger vetoed the measure.
Likewise, Commissioner Joan Murphy was a co-sponsor of the most recent rollback measure, but turned around and voted against it.
A vote to override the veto is expected to happen during next Tuesday’s regular board meeting.